Plane Flew Close To The White House...and
as per standard operating procedure:
F-16s on alert at Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled, but the order
came about
the time that the Cessna 182 was passing within four miles of the White
House.
Andrews, about 10 miles from the White House, pilots with the
D.C. Air National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron were on "strip alert,"
a posture adopted this spring after round-the-clock combat air patrols
ended.

President Was Not Told About Approaching Plane...and
as per standard operating procedure:FBI
officials concluded that the pilot made an innocent navigational error
when he flew his small plane into restricted airspace Wednesday night,
prompting an evacuation of the presidential mansion and the scrambling
of two F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base.

Plane
in Restricted Airspace Near White House
Exposes a Security Weakness

by Eric Schmitt, The New York Times,
June 20, 2002

WASHINGTON
— Air traffic controllers in Baltimore first spotted the unidentified
light aircraft heading toward Washington just before 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The Air Force scrambled two F-16 fighters after the plane entered restricted
airspace over the capital a few minutes later.

But
before the streaking jets got close enough to intercept the single-engine
plane, it was close enough to the White House to hit the building had
the pilot wanted to, the authorities said today.

"They
would not have gotten there in time," a senior Bush administration official
said of the F-16's based at Andrews Air Force Base, 10 miles from the
capital.

President
Bush remained in the White House, was never in danger and was not notified
of the incident until this morning, aides said.

The
Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded after questioning the pilot
on Wednesday night that he was just an aviator who moved off course
to avoid thunderstorms.

But
the incident raises questions about the effectiveness of the government
plan to protect the White House from terrorists in planes. It may also
lead to calls for restoring permanent air patrols over Washington or
expanding the restricted airspace around the capital that had already
been enlarged after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"This
incident is serious enough to require them to re-examine this and make
a determination if any changes are necessary," said Senator John W.
Warner of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

"The
issue is, could you have prevented this if that aircraft had meant to
do harm? No," a Pentagon official said. "So do you live with a certain
amount of risk, or do you say that's unacceptable and either expand
the protected zone or have fighter planes circle the White House day
and night?"

White
House officials sought today to play down any fears that the pilot of
the single-engine Cessna 182 had exposed a security hole in the cocoon
around the president.

The
White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said an aide did not notify Mr.
Bush of the incident until this morning, even though the White House
was partly evacuated by the Secret Service on Wednesday night.

"It
didn't rise to his level," Mr. Fleischer said. "The president was neither
notified nor moved because the nature of the threat did not indicate
that he needed to be."

Mr.
Fleischer added that if the plane had continued on a course that was
deemed threatening, "the Secret Service was ready, prepared to do anything
they thought was necessary."

Moreover,
he said, the Secret Service was well-equipped to defend the White House
and protect Mr. Bush.

"Suffice
it to say, there are multiple levels of protection for the president
that are somewhat redundant, that are overlapping," Mr. Fleischer said,
without elaborating.

After
the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the military
flew 24-hour combat patrols over Washington and New York. Those round-the-clock
patrols ended about two months ago after administration officials said
stricter airport security, stronger cockpit doors and more federal marshals
on flights had sufficiently reduced the threat of attacks. The flights
were costing $50 million a week.

Under
the new procedures, Air Force F-15's and F-16's fly occasional patrols
at random times over several major cities, including Washington and
New York. Otherwise, pilots at about 30 bases around the country remain
on "strip alert," ready to dash to their jets and take off within 15
minutes of an order.

That
is what happened on Wednesday night, officials said today.

At
7:59 p.m., Baltimore controllers notified the tower at Reagan National
Airport just outside Washington that an unidentified small plane flying
at 10,500 feet was 20 miles from the capital. The plane was suspicious
because it had not responded to radio calls to establish proper contact.

Two
minutes later, the aircraft flew into the restricted airspace, a 15-mile
radius around the Washington Monument that extends up to 18,000 feet,
that is off-limits to private planes.

At
the same time, controllers notified the Federal Aviation Administration,
the Secret Service and the North American Aerospace Command, known as
Norad, which controls the fighter jets.

At
8:03 p.m., controllers were told that NORAD had scrambled the two F-16's
from the 113th Air Wing at Andrews. But crucial minutes passed before
the F-16's could rev up and take off. At 8:13 p.m., the Cessna, flying
a southwesterly course at about 150 miles an hour, left the restricted
airspace. It came within four miles of the White House, officials said.

About
five minutes after the plane left the restricted zone, the F-16's took
off — 14 minutes after they were ordered aloft, a span that was within
their required response time but well after the potential threat had
passed.

The
pilot, who investigators later learned was flying from Gardner, Mass.,
to Raleigh, N.C., was unaware of the commotion he had caused until he
called in to a flight service center in Leesburg, Va., 32 miles northwest
of Washington, for a weather update.

The
F-16's escorted him to the airport in Richmond, Va., where he landed
at 8:45 p.m.

F.B.I.
and Secret Service agents searched the plane and questioned and then
released the pilot and a passenger, neither of whom the authorities
would identify.

The
White House was evacuated and fighter jets were scrambled last night
after a pilot accidentally flew his single-engine Cessna into restricted
airspace near the Capitol, officials said.

Two
F-16 fighter jets escorted the Cessna 182 to Richmond International
Airport, law enforcement officials said. The White House evacuation
was called off about 15 minutes after the pilot came within four miles
of the executive mansion, then made contact with the Federal Aviation
Administration's Leesburg flight service station for a weather update.

The
emergency occurred a few hours after a bomb scare outside two Federal
Reserve buildings in Northwest Washington prompted D.C. and federal
authorities to evacuate about 1,300 federal workers. That incident forced
the closure of several streets just as the evening commute began.

The
errant plane was spotted about 8 p.m. crossing the temporarily restricted
airspace at 10,500 feet -- about 8,000 feet lower than allowed -- and
did not respond to radio communications from flight control towers,
said Secret Service spokesman Brian Marr.

The
Secret Service set an emergency procedure into motion, moving staff
members and visitors away from the White House, Marr said.

President
Bush had returned to the White House from a Republican fundraiser about
20 minutes before the emergency and remained inside, a law enforcement
source said.

The
pilot, who was flying from Massachusetts to Raleigh, N.C., crossed an
airspace restriction imposed after Sept. 11 and skirted the permanently
restricted area directly above the White House, said Laura Brown, an
FAA spokeswoman.

The
restrictions -- called Notices to Airmen, or NOTAMs -- are updated by
the FAA daily. Pilots are required to check their flight paths for NOTAMs,
Marr said.

The
Cessna landed in Richmond about 8:50 p.m., and the pilot and his passenger
waited on the taxiway until federal agents interviewed them, airport
officials said.

The
pilot could face fines, a letter of reprimand or license revocation,
Brown said.

The
earlier evacuation occurred about 3:20 p.m., when a custodian working
for the Federal Reserve noticed a suspicious object in a trash bin just
outside the reserve's two buildings on 20th Street, between Constitution
Avenue and C Street NW.

Authorities
sent in a robot to defuse the object, then realized it was a false alarm,
officials said. Roads were closed from about 3:30 p.m. to 6:40 p.m.,
snarling traffic.

The
small plane that violated Washington airspace and prompted the evacuation
of the White House on Wednesday evening was not intercepted by military
jets until after it had flown within a few miles of the presidential
home, defense officials said yesterday.

While
stressing that the White House was not endangered, the military officials
acknowledged that the incident shows aircraft have the potential to
reach targets in Washington before they can be intercepted.

Twenty-four-hour
combat air patrols were put in place over Washington and New York after
the Sept. 11 attacks, but they were cut back this spring because of
Pentagon concerns about the cost and strain on aircraft and flight crews.
The patrols are still flown intermittently, but no fighter jets were
aloft over Washington at the time of Wednesday night's incident, officials
said.

Instead,
F-16s on alert at Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled, but the order
came about the time that the Cessna 182 was passing within four miles
of the White House. By the time the fighter jets were aloft, the Cessna
had flown out of the restricted airspace.

The
plane, piloted by a civilian apparently unaware he was violating restricted
airspace, came within a mile of prohibited airspace over the White House,
the U.S. Capitol and memorials on the Mall. The identify of the pilot
could not be learned yesterday. The jets did not establish contact with
the pilot, who did not respond to radio communications, until the plane
was over Fredericksburg, Va., officials said.

Defense
officials said the problem was not the response time, but that the existing
restricted buffer zone allows little time to react if fighters are not
in the air.

"The
fighter aircraft were there in the designated time," a senior defense
official said. "The real policy question is: Do you put the buffer out
further, or change the defense posture?"

The
White House was evacuated for about 15 minutes Wednesday night, but
President Bush was kept in the building, a decision officials defended
yesterday.

A
senior administration official said White House concern about the fighter
jets' inability to reach the intruding plane was lessened by the fact
that other security measures are in place to protect against aerial
attacks on the White House.

"Suffice
it to say there are multiple levels of protection for the president,"
said spokesman Ari Fleischer, who said Bush was not told of the incident
until yesterday morning.

"It
didn't rise to his level," Fleischer said. "The president could be watching
the news, and he could hear that there was a fence-jumper at the White
House. That happens."

No
staff members were evacuated, the White House said.

A
military official said, "Yeah, we couldn't get there in time, but the
defense of the White House is not solely based on the ability to scramble
jets. There's a whole lot more at play here."

Some
officials suggested that the U.S. Secret Service agents who ordered
the White House evacuation may have overreacted.

"The
Secret Service is looking at the whole incident," the senior administration
official said. "The Secret Service automatically goes into its precautionary
modes, and different people have discretion to do some things within
that mode. They want to make certain that the right judgments were made
involving that discretion.

The
Cessna, carrying the pilot and one passenger, took off from Gardner,
Mass., Wednesday en route to Raleigh, N.C., but ran into bad weather
over New Jersey. Approaching Washington, the pilot made a navigational
change that brought him into restricted airspace.

A
"temporary flight restriction" established by the Federal Aviation Administration
after Sept. 11 bars private planes from flying below 18,000 feet within
a 15-mile radius of the Washington Monument.

The
Cessna, flying at a speed of about 150 miles per hour and an altitude
of 10,500 feet, was spotted four miles from the White House at 8:01
p.m., authorities said.

"The
aircraft was exhibiting no other threatening behavior," said a military
official. At no time did the plane enter even more restrictive airspace
near the White House, which has been closed for decades to air traffic.

After
trying unsuccessfully to establish communication with the plane, controllers
at Reagan National Airport notified the Secret Service.

About
a minute later, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which
oversees military aircraft protecting the nation, also was notified.
Three minutes later, at 8:06 p.m., NORAD relayed word for Andrews Air
Force Base to scramble jets, according to a timeline first reported
by CNN yesterday and confirmed by military officials.

"What
prompted the scramble was the fact the violation had already occurred,"
a military official said.

At
Andrews, about 10 miles from the White House, pilots with the D.C. Air
National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron were on "strip alert," a posture
adopted this spring after round-the-clock combat air patrols ended.

The
posture requires the squadron to launch two F-16s within 15 minutes
of receiving an order. On-call pilots stand at the ready in the squadron
headquarters or in a nearby trailer. Fully fueled F-16 jets sit in nearby
hangars, already armed with air-to-air missiles.

The
F-16s were airborne at 8:17 p.m., within 11 minutes of notification,
officials said. "These guys weren't loitering," said an Air Force official.
"It was executed pretty well."

By
the time they were airborne, the Cessna had passed out of the restricted
zone after being in violation for 12 minutes, according to the FAA.

"The
process worked as intended," said Army Maj. Barry Venable, a spokesman
for NORAD. "We'll certainly review our role in this incident and see
if there's anything we need to adjust, but there's been no decision
that anything needs to change."

After
the Cessna landed at Richmond International Airport, police escorted
the pilot and passenger into the terminal, where they were interviewed
by the FBI and Secret Service.

The
Cessna is owned by Michael Donlon, 44, co-owner of Mohawk Valley Skydiving
in Scotia, N.Y. Donlon said last night that two pilots were flying the
plane to North Carolina for some modifications so it could be used for
skydiving.

One
of the pilots called him at 12:30 a.m. to tell him what happened, Donlon
said. "I thought these guys were playing a joke on me," he said. But
after talking to a Secret Service agent, then turning on the television,
he thought, "Oh boy, this might not be good." He said both pilots were
from New England, but he declined to give their names.

The
pilot had no idea he had violated the airspace, said Jim Mackin, a spokesman
for the Secret Service. He said no criminal charges are expected to
be filed. But FAA spokesman William Shumann said that if the pilot is
found guilty of violating regulations, he could be reprimanded or his
license could be suspended or revoked.

The
plane was searched and nothing dangerous was found, officials said.
A four-seater Cessna 182 has an 88-gallon fuel tank, compared with a
63,705-gallon tank for a 747 plane, according to the General Aviation
Manufacturers Association.

The
plane left Richmond about 9 a.m. yesterday, heading for Raleigh-Durham
Airport.

Mackin
said that there have been about a dozen violations of airspace near
the White House since Sept. 11. He said the other planes were either
in constant radio communication with the FAA or momentarily skirted
over the line.

Adding
to post-Sept. 11 jitters, police yesterday cordoned off some downtown
streets for the second consecutive day, snarling traffic as they checked
suspicious packages that wound up being false alarms. The latest scare
occurred during lunchtime near 15th and K streets NW, police said. The
area was closed from 11:05 a.m. to about 1:45 p.m., causing traffic
backups.

It
followed a massive rush-hour jam Wednesday caused by a similar incident
at the Federal Reserve.

WASHINGTON
-- President Bush and his wife were not moved -- or even informed --
when many others in the White House were evacuated because of an approaching
wayward airplane, his spokesman disclosed Thursday.

FBI officials
concluded that the pilot made an innocent navigational error when he
flew his small plane into restricted airspace Wednesday night, prompting
a partial evacuation of the presidential mansion and the scrambling
of two F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base.

"It never did
reach the point, however, where it was either necessary to either move
or even inform the president. He found out this morning," White House
press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.

Journalists
working in the West Wing were among those ordered to evacuate by Secret
Service officers. Fleischer, struggling to explain why one safety standard
applied to personnel and another to the president, said Secret Service
officers stationed in the West Wing exercised their own discretion when
they hustled people out.

"I think it's
obvious the president is always kept the most secure person in the White
House," Fleischer said. "And again, there was never a threat to the
president."

The plane,
a single-engine Cessna 182, got as close as four miles from the executive
mansion, violating an expanded no-fly zone established after Sept. 11.

The F-16s scrambled
to intercept the pilot, who officials said changed course to avoid bad
weather Wednesday during a twilight trip from Massachusetts to Raleigh,
N.C. The fighter jets did not catch up to him until 11 minutes after
he had left the restricted space on his own.

By then, he
was near Fredericksburg, Va., and the fighter pilots instructed the
Cessna to land in Richmond, Va., according to a time line compiled by
government officials.

A defense official
said the plane never made any threatening maneuvers.

Dozens of similar
White House airspace violations have occurred in recent weeks, officials
said, without any noticeable consequence on the ground.

The difference
in Wednesday's episode was that the pilot was nonresponsive when air
traffic controllers tried to contact him on emergency frequencies he
apparently was not monitoring, said Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin.
That was when some security officers decided to start moving people
toward the White House gates, he said.

As for the
president, "certainly had that flight taken a different path or changed
its path, additional procedures would have been activated," Mackin said.
"But it didn't come to that."

The pilot and
his one passenger were questioned by authorities in Richmond.

"It turned
out to be navigational error," said FBI chief division counsel Lawrence
Barry of Richmond. "Both the pilot and the passenger were very cooperative.
They were not placed in custody."